U.S. Northeast Digs out from Snow Following Hurricane

New York City and much of the
U.S. Northeast on Thursday dug out from a snowstorm that
walloped a region still struggling to recover from the
devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

New York City and much of the
U.S. Northeast on Thursday dug out from a snowstorm that
walloped a region still struggling to recover from the
devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

The unseasonably early winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Connecticut and slapped the region
with 50 mph winds, plunging another 300,000 homes and
businesses back into darkness and creating a new commuting
nightmare for a region whose transportation system was still
under repairs.

The bitter cold, rain and powerful winds added to the misery
of disaster victims whose homes were destroyed or power knocked
out by the massive storm Sandy that smashed ashore on Oct. 29
with epic flooding.

"God hates us!" the New York Post said in a front-page
headline. Some 3 to 6 inches of snow fell on
the city.

Sandy's death toll in the United States and Canada reached
121 after New York authorities on Wednesday reported another
death linked to the storm, in the hard-hit coastal neighborhood
of the Rockaways, a barrier island facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Some 300,000 customers from the Carolinas to New York lost
power, though roughly 250,000 were restored before morning. In
all some 662,000 remained in the dark after the back-to-back
hurricane and nor'easter.

New York distributed space heaters and blankets to residents
without heat or power and opened shelters to those in need of a
warm place to sleep.

EVACUATIONS AND DISRUPTIONS

New York and New Jersey evacuated the most vulnerable
coastal areas ahead of the nor'easter storm.

New York City officials urged people whose homes have been
flooded by Sandy to relocate to the homes of friends or family
members or to go to city shelters.

Some were unwilling or unable to leave their homes. That
included Christine Jones, a 73-year-old resident of coastal Far
Rockaway in the borough of Queens who said she and many of her
neighbors planned to stay in their cold, dark apartments.

"They're scared they're going to be robbed," said Jones,
whose evacuation options were limited since her 1999 Buick was
flooded by Sandy's storm surge. "The teen-age boys ... they try
to break in."

Commuter bus and train services had been disrupted by the
storm, with the Long Island Rail Road briefly shutting down all
operations to the city's eastern suburbs on Wednesday night.

All of the region's major airports experienced canceled
flights and delays on Wednesday due to the storm, and gasoline
remained in short supply, though four companies told the United
States they intended to take advantage of a rare waiver allowing
them to use foreign-flagged ships to transport oil products to
the storm-hit region.

Across the region, people waited for a return of power and
warmth.

Diane Reinhardt, a 64-year-old retired teacher, said she had
traveled from her home in Brooklyn to the south shore of Long
Island to check on her 93-year-old mother, whose home had been
without power since Sandy hit more than a week ago.

"They're just at wit's end," Reinhardt said of her mother
and brother. "They feel like they're never going to get power
back and it's never going to get warm again."